Parents are turning to autonomous vehicles (AVs) to shuttle their children around, seeing them as a safe and convenient option. AVs promise increased mobility for children but bring with them unparalleled surveillance risks. As parents embrace in-cabin monitoring and location tracking to enhance safety, they also—often unknowingly—authorize the mass collection, retention, and potential disclosure of their children’s most intimate data.
This Essay presents the first case study of children’s privacy in AVs, serving as a lens to critique the prevailing reliance on parental notice and choice as the cornerstone of children's data protection. Drawing on privacy theory, surveillance studies, and child development literature, the Essay argues that the notice-and-choice framework fails to account for children’s distinct privacy interests, particularly when the data collected may be retained indefinitely, repurposed by law enforcement, or sold to data brokers. The Essay calls for real limits on data collection, meaningful restrictions on sharing, and mandatory deletion rules. These principles extend beyond AVs to the technological ecosystem now shaping childhood in the digital age.